What time is it, really?

Time can be precise, relative or subjective; it can be viewed as past, present or future. It’s ironic that despite time’s dominant influence in our lives and conceptual importance in understanding the universe, time remains too elusive for a single definition. For example, Italian theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli provides a fascinating discussion of time in his book, The Order of Time, including the concept that time is not uniform. It depends on, among other things, where you are and how you move.

A new wrinkle in time, or perhaps an old one

A recent article by Benedict Carey in the New York Times considers how time affects the brain in investigations of time warp, by which he means the relationship between perceived time and precise Greenwich Mean time. New research finds a pattern of brain activity of specific neurons in the medial temporal area that mark very short chunks of time (on the order of seconds or minutes). Relating the brain to larger intervals of time – days, weeks, months, years – a larger dimension of time warp – is another matter that remains far-off. Relating time to a brain template, so to speak, promises to be a major advance in defining what time means to us.

Future tense…

Apart from applauding these studies of how time is charted in the brain, arguably our most extraordinary product of evolution, my mind turns to genes, which encode our brain as well as the rest of us. I see a common challenge in filling the large and complex gap between relating
brain activity to time and events and relating gene expression to development and function (the scientific jargon relating genotype to phenotype).

I continue to be amazed at the richness of biology, in which every advance forward shines a light on dozens of new paths that need to be explored.